Zone of proximal development

Picture three circles. Inside is everything you can already do on your own. Way outside is what you can't manage even with help. In between is a ring: things you can just about pull off with a good tip. This ring is called the zone of proximal development, “proximal” meaning “next”. Like riding a bike with someone's hand on the back of the seat: soon you'll ride on your own.

The idea comes from Lev Vygotsky, a Soviet psychologist. He lived from 1896 to 1934 and died of tuberculosis at just 37. In his short life he wrote so much that the world only really listened decades later. His most important thoughts came out in English in 1978 in the collection Mind in Society. Already in 1976, researchers around Jerome Bruner had shown how adults help small children build a pyramid out of blocks. They called this help scaffolding: you support only as much as needed and take it down bit by bit.

If a task is too easy, you get bored and learn nothing new. If it is way too hard, you give up. Right in between, your head has to stretch, but it makes it. That is when your skills grow fastest. That is why it pays to first figure out what you already know.

In Mnemorya the Atlas uses what the app already knows about your prior knowledge. When refining, you can also enter it yourself: Brand new, Some idea or Already solid, plus a free text. That way the learning path starts where you are right now, and not at zero or way too far ahead.